


Alcor in Demoniac Worship Literature and the Gastrian Romantic Tradition

by Reynier



Category: Gravity Falls, Transcendence AU- Fandom
Genre: Academia, Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Gen, In-Universe Academic Article, POV Outsider, god this is without a doubt the weirdest and most boring fic i have ever written
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:49:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24547177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reynier/pseuds/Reynier
Summary: Abstract:The body of early 8th millennium literature known as the Matter of Alcor, while a longstanding staple of literature studies, has received little attention in the field of occult academia. This article provides a brief introduction to the most key elements of the demoniac worship literature tradition, with a special focus on Alcor, in the aim of shedding light on the potential value to Alcorian Studies and demonological historiography.
Comments: 27
Kudos: 45





	Alcor in Demoniac Worship Literature and the Gastrian Romantic Tradition

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aba_daba_do](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aba_daba_do/gifts).



> shoutout if you're still awake by the end of this

The author of the 73nd century _Alcorate Cycle_ has never been determined. Some names have been put forward, most notably that of celebrated poet and theorized Mizar reincarnation Mina Galang, but to this date no strong evidence has been provided in any direction. Today, the _Alcorate Cycle_ has nearly vanished from the public lexicon and survives only in obscure corners of academia. Nonetheless, it had a profound effect on the next three centuries’ worth of demoniacal worship poems, a genre which thrived in planets throughout the Terran stellar neighbourhood in the period 7200-7500. The aim of this article is to provide an introduction to late Gastian-era Alcorian literature for the scholar interested in the extant body of fictionalised writing beyond transcendental novels. 

Frequently considered to consist of the first novels of the Gastian era, the seven-book _Alcorate Cycle_ describes the journeys of an unnamed protagonist from Gravity Falls, Oregon to the “Utopia” where he will find his friends. Initial modern scholarship on the work posited that it represented an anti-reincarnational description of Heaven (Zakoby 7921), however more recent philological studies suggest that the novels are instead a reflection on the journey of Alcor from the Transcendence to the Mindscape (Qiu 8054), which would classify them as among the first demoniacal worship texts of the Gastian era. 

The passage which first drew the attention of Alcorian scholars runs as follows (trans. Diezia 8091):

_...and so he came to a wide ford with a thin bridge that stretched from bank to bank. At the other end of the bridge there stood a woman whom he knew, but she turned her face as soon as he caught sight of her. He spoke to the keeper of the bridge: “What does it take to cross?” The keeper replied that he would never cross as long as the stars burned in the sky. When he heard this he grew very angry and threatened to hurt the old man who kept the bridge. But the keeper drew the sign of the triangle on his breast and turned away. The mists swept in and covered the end of the bridge, and the woman was no more to be seen._

The failure of early academia to provide a model of this passage in the context of anti-reincarnationalism is one of the most damning pieces of evidence against that interpretation. In the Alcorian demoniacal worship model, the woman at the end of the bridge represents Mizar, who turns her face just as Alcor catches a glimpse of her (representing her relatively short lifespan in relation to his), and the keeper protects himself against Alcor by drawing a warding triangle on his chest, one of the common superstitions of the Gastian era (Classen 8119). The most curious line in the passage is the one in which the keeper of the bridge instructs Alcor that he will never cross the bridge (and reach Mizar) until the stars are no longer alight. This implies some element of post-universal philosophy positing that Alcor and Mizar will reunite at the end of the universe, either in an afterlife or a new reincarnation cycle (Jorowe 8092).

Despite its modern obscurity, the _Alcorate Cycle_ nonetheless influenced the demonical matter of the following centuries. Even if it was not written as a worship text, it is undeniable that its characters, themes, and plot points inspired countless retellings and reinvisionings in the genre of the ‘demoniac romance,’ a genre of epic poem recounting the deeds of demons and their disciples on Earth (Sattary 8094). Today, the only demoniac romance commonly taught in schools is Tatiana of Seattle’s _The Journey of Fang Wu_ , a romance of some 7,000 lines describing the errant adventures of the historical 71st century anti-cult activist and Mizar reincarnation Fang Wu. The poem is written in rhyming couplets, and most academic translations do not preserve the rhythm nor alliterative complexity of the original Middle Tranzian. However, I provide here an excerpt from a rhyming verse translation which I believe conveys both the tone and plot points of the original (trans. Siena 8085):

_But when they came to Monaco,  
they saw the ground stretched bare below  
the ancient, crumbling castle walls.  
So Fang said: “Here is what befalls  
the land which under angels’ wings  
eschews all base and mortal things.  
We see the the price the cult has paid,  
we see the ground, once vibrant, laid  
to rust and ruined ash. We must  
make haste. I do not ever trust  
the bones of vanished city streets,  
nor place my faith in long-dead feats.”_

Fang Wu travels with a variety of companions, many of them unnamed but charming in their oddities, and occasionally calls on Alcor for advice or discussion. The poem presents a largely positive view of Alcor, although on occasion the protagonist is forced to restrain his more violent impulses. It solidifies its place in the wider Matter of Alcor (a body of Gastrian texts devoted to Alcor and various of his associates) by including several other Mizars, most notably the Silver Queen. Frequently associated with Naomi Argenta (Vere 8073), the Silver Queen rules over the realm of the Far Isles with her twin brother, who is carefully not present at the court reception of Fang Wu and Alcor.

The body of demoniac romance consists of upwards of 900 texts, varying in length and originality. Although some, like the _Journey of Fang Wu_ and _Caesium or the Vengeance of Angels_ , seem to draw only thematic inspiration from the _Alcorate Cycle_ , the vast majority are more explicitly Alcorian verse retellings of scenes from that work. According to Amanda H. Toot’s masterful 5-volume study _Alcor in Fiction: a Casebook_ , the single most common narrative thread in the Matter of Alcor is the Four Faces sequence from the third book of the _Alcorate Cycle_ (Toot 8081). Roughly summarized, the arc describes the protagonist’s contention with four different entities who await him in the City of Lee: the Giver, the Trickster, the Monster, and the Hermit. The motif of the Four Faces appears again and again throughout demoniac romances, sometimes as separate characters and sometimes as different aspects of Alcor. Although much of modern scholarship associates the Four Faces with the Ketz Model of Alcorian psychology (Enujos 8087), it should be noted that the Ketz model had fallen out of fashion in the Gastrian period (Dubai 8073), and so any similarities to the model are a result of cultural memory than direct allegory.

Indeed, demoniac worship poems and indeed the Matter of Alcor in general are largely unconcerned with historical or occult accuracy. The first accredited text in the Matter is the 71st century pseudohistory _Annals of the Transcendence_ , which is neither in line with history nor even comprehensible inside its own chronology (Rats 8102). It posits that Alcor was a king of Gravity Falls before falling victim to a curse which rotted his soul from the inside out, and describes various Mizars as his advisors all at the same time. Confusingly, the demon who curses King Alcor is _also_ named Alcor, and is described to have “haunted the woods of Fallen Gravity for eons past” (trans. Oodadaba 8036). The most salient piece of information for the non-literature Alcorian scholar is that the original demon Alcor is described as having a three-sided object form, which raises interesting questions regarding the origin of the triangular gesture (Ysiad 8115).

In short, I propose that the Matter of Alcor provides an excellent window into demon-worshipping and cult activities of the Gastrian era. Its wide variety of works have relevance to the Alcorian scholar interested in historiography, as well as the changing perceptions of Alcor in the beginning of the Space Age. As Terran society branched out into the galaxy, cultures became disparate. The literature of the era reflects, in many ways, Terrans’ desire to tether themselves to their history (Jocasta 8103) via the one figure who would never leave them. 

**Author's Note:**

> *vibrating with excitement* ask me about the real life equivalent of this ask me ask me please ask me


End file.
